Michael, what a wonderful human being you are. You just described precisely what I've been doing now -- putting the cover over my head and waiting for December. I've been deleting so much from my Inbox. I am very old and this has made me once again terribly depressed. You're telling me to snap out of it. I wlll watch your film again with today's eyes. Thank you, Michael for what you share with us.
Dear Michael, I agree with you 100% on the populist economics. You, Robert Reich, Chris Murphy, Bernie Sanders, Antonio Delgado all have the same diagnosis and same prescription. But can we first make sure we even actually lost this time around? I'm assuming you know about the letter the seven computer scientists wrote to Kamala Harris explaining that because Trump supporters unlawfully breached voting systems in a number of states, then copied and distributed proprietary software to an unknown number of people, they were urging her to demand a hand-recount/forensic audit in at least some of the swing states to make sure the declared results are valid. But, and stop me if you've heard this one, did you know that Jackie Singh, head of cybersecurity for the Biden/Harris 2020 campaign also sent a letter to Harris urging a hand-recount/forensic audit?(link provided at end of comment)The Republicans scream bloody murder election fraud with no evidence and actually shift public opinion. Multiple recounts occur in multiple swing states. The Dems, on the other hand, with every legitimate reason not to trust thieving Republicans who lie, cheat, and act in bad faith every step of the way--gerrymandering, voter suppression, the Supremes, stealing and disseminating voting software--don't make a peep. How the hell can we be motivated to work for progressive change when we have no way of knowing with any reasonable certainty who even won this last election? We well may have lost. And I'm all for the next fight and insisting on a new, true economic populism whether we did or not. But with all the sketchy stuff pre-election, all the irregularities/voting anomalies that are being claimed post-election, the nature of the opposition-constant lying/always acting in bad faith--we need to find out first and foremost if we actually DID lose.
Another galling observation is that 5 million fewer Democrats voted for Harris in 2024 than Biden in 2022 even though she was on the ticket with him. Every poll leading up to the election had us all believing that it would be a Democrat landslide. Apparently the old adage "it's not who votes, but who counts the votes that matters". Abolish the Electoral College.
Is it possible to recall a president? I ask because here in California we once (that I know of) recalled a governor (Gray Davis) for reasons laughable compared to Trumpzi’s treasonous criminality. Asking for 183 million friends …
Alas, there is no Constitutional provision for recalling a president. They can only be impeached in the House of Representatives and tried in the Senate.
Thank you for responding (w/o ridicule) ... I still wonder whether a "petition" might garner some popular traction, and at least provide some cathartic "release" for a significant portion of that 183 million. Thank you again for respectfully considering my silly suggestion.
Mike; I agree with what you said about how the working class felt abandoned, but where was your indignation during the campaign? You were one of Harris's biggest cheerleaders. Your criticism is valid, but why didn't you do It during the campaign? It's kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has already left. Do better.
He made it clear that Harris and her public support of Biden/DNC’s anti-Palestinian policy—no Palestinian voice at DNC Convention, endless Biden/DNC admin military and financial support for genocide, etc— was deeply immoral and despicable and would cost the Dems. And yes, genocide in Gaza was one of several things that added up for people as being WEAK about Harris and her sad team, the forever spineless DNC.
However, When you have Bernie and AOC supporting Biden admin for being the most progressive since FDR (Lina Khan at FTC is a great example) MM might not have felt it wise to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Yes, the DNC is a disgrace—but bashing their long-standing corporate sell-out of the middle class, instead of doing your best to support someone who is part of a progressive admin, well, what’s the point?
MM has a limited amount of political capital in the progressive space —he has to cheerlead as well as criticize. So he criticized her for being pro-genocide (let’s face it, that’s what the Biden policy is) but cheer-leaded her for being progressive. Which is what AOC and Bernie did as well.
I won’t say “Do better,” Craig, because that would be snarky.
I agree. I was appalled by Biden stance on Gaza and all the assistance we gave to the genocide, but given a choice of Trump or Harris, of course, we supported her. However I can understand how sick people are by the lack of action by the DNC to reverse the terrible money in politics policies. Give the donors whatever they pay for. Now it may be too late with climate change and Trump's fascism.
If you want to stop the corruption, you're going to have to show the American people concrete proof that both major political parties have sold them out.
I have that proof. I put it in a book. All you have to do is read it. You can get a free digital copy by going to my Substack
I don't recall him ever criticizing Harris on Gaza. He actually said that fewer people would die under a Harris administration. And, he called the DNC convention flawless, barely mentioning the snub of the Palestinian speaker. Besides, Harris didn't lose over Gaza, she lost because people associated her with Biden, they blamed Bideh/Harris for higher prices. That's why he won.
MM excoriated, pleaded with, did everything possible, to stop Biden/AIPAC/DNC —and by association, Harris- backed genocide. He threw her a bone when she wasn’t as rabid as Biden. But she was still WEAK on genocide.
This election wasn’t just one thing, although the tortuously stressful and virtually unsurvivable paycheck-to-paycheck lives of 60 percent of Americans, was certainly top of list. But I know that a lot of people, esp young people, who simply couldn’t REWARD a genocidal party —even if the other one was worse. That would have required being proactive in the awarding of one’s precious vote. A bridge too far. So people who had voted for Biden in 2020 stayed home so they didn’t have to be complicit. I know some. I think that’s what the vote showed? Maybe I’m wrong?
Probably parially true, but it's also true that a number of people who voted for Biden in 2020 switched to Trump. AOC polled some of her own supporters who voted for her AND Trump. They thought Trump was the champion of the working class. Some thought he would end the war. So, obviously misinformation played a large part as well.
It's actually worst than you think. The Republicans and Democrats are actually conspiring together against every single one of us. For proof of this assertion, go to my Substack for a free digital copy of my book: The Illusion of Justice.
Along with many women in professions that in my lifetime didn’t admit not accept women, I remain convinced that the people who stayed home mainly would have voted for a white guy with the same policies and campaign.
C'mon, Mr. Moore, you're better than this. Dems lost this time around because, once again, they failed to read the pulse of the American people. I contend that Democratic leadership hasn't learned much since the 2016 election loss.
In 2016, there was shock and dismay, followed by whining and complaining. I saw little evidence of anyone in Democratic leadership doing the work of trying to figure out why what happened happened. You, however, called it beforehand and I wrote a couple of articles on LinkedIn just afterward where I explained what I believed was at play.
Instead of developing young leadership, which should have been an obvious necessity at the time, Democrats unnecessarily spun their wheels for 3 years, then had a 20 person cage match fight for the nomination. Thank goodness for Biden's SC victory that propelled him to the nomination because, being more centric, he was likely the only candidate who had a chance of beating Trump in 2020. Trump attacked him so hard because he knew that.
The Harris campaign did touch a bit on all of the important topics, but focused WAY too much on "Trump bad, we have morals" than it should have. Too much effort was spent preaching to the choir, so to speak. At some point in time the Democratic Party needs to analyze WHY it lost in 2016 & 2024 and why 2020 was closer than it should have been.
As other have proffered being against Trump wasn't and isn't enough. The aftermath of Democratic reaction to this loss almost seems like congratulating itself on how close it was (just 12 votes per precinct). No! Too many Dems think that anyone who voted for Trump is, by definition, a racist, xenophobe, and misogynist. Democratic leadership needs to be analytical and more broad-minded. Think like a debate team candidate - you can successfully argue your own position only when you can do so regarding the opposing view.
The Republicans absolutely OWNED social media this time around. The Democratic think tank has rusted out and needs to be replaced. We need to stop feeling good about what we did well this time and focus on where, why, and how we f*cked up and then be determined to turn that around. Democrats need to understand that not everyone thinks as they do. Get inside the heads of the opposition and figure it out!
The Democrats are taking bribes from the same corporate/special interest groups as the Republicans. They are always going to do exactly what the "donors" want them to do and this will not change until we demand an end to the system of legalized bribery that is the cause of all the problems in the world.
The Democrats or the Republicans for that matter could fight for progressive policies but they refuse to stop taking bribes. Why do you think both parties are pro-genocide?
Why many of us voted for Ralph Nader whose research proved the basic equality of corruption of the two parties. But he snd us Greens are still blamed for Bush winning despite excellent proof that we were sadly worth almost nothing while both parties plus Congress and the Supremes managed the whole system for the Repugs.
I voted for Nader in 1996, but then he failed to organize any kind of ground game for the 2000 race, just his own celebrity status, so I sighed and voted for Democratic Leadership Council founding member Al Gore, whose campaign seemed to consist of "Me, too, but not as much" in response to Bush's declarations of policy.
If you go to my Substack, you can get a free digital copy of my book: The Illusion of Justice. It not only proves that both parties are corrupt, but that they have been conspiring together to violate everyone's constitutional rights by packing the courts with corrupt corporate judges who have no intention of ever siding with the American people.
We need to stop with Monday-morning-quarterbacking and whining…and start getting ready to win the midterms with a substantial enough margin to shut down any drivel from Trumpists about a mandate. Let’s get behind good candidates and a strong message. Trump,will help us by embracing the crazy and scaring the non-MAGA. 2026 is just around the corner. Let’s get busy!
We need to move beyond the outdated battle between capitalism and socialism neither of which exists in modern America. What we have now is Corporate Communism—a business plan, not a conspiracy theory, where corporations maximize profits at the expense of everything else. It is when brain dead, soulless corporations own the means of communication. It’s anti-capitalist, anti-socialist, and anti-competitive at its core. It is not one of innovation or market competition, but of bean-counting and job destruction.
The corporate advertising media, a key player in this scheme, props up figures like Trump because they sell ad revenue. Journalism, which costs money, has been sacrificed for 24/7 sensationalism. Instead of covering the root causes of economic discontent, they peddle endless stories about political, sport and entertainment sideshows, keeping Americans distracted while corporations continue their conquest. Then there is the wrong-headed, simple-minded policy of equal time. The stupidest example being the opposing party making a “response” to the state of the union by the president. That speech is a report by the leader of the country on the actual “State of the Union.” Yes, it is partisan and so are presidential news conferences and public comments. The opposition has no standing to reply in an official or advertising media funded manner. It is a cynical joke. The most egregious example being the “sane washing” of Trumputin. Supposed journalists report of the incoherent ravings of our: Felon In Chief” as if he were somehow a normal candidate much less a functioning adult. Shame on us for thinking that this politically correct idiocy is somehow in the service of democracy.
We have privatized Big Brother.
How We Got Here:
Do you remember Occupy Wall Street and The Tea Party? Did it ever seem to be that they were opposite sides of the same coin? The coin of “fed up.” They had vastly different solutions to complaints that were eerily similar. The Occupy people were yelling about corrupt capitalism and Tea Party types about creeping socialism. In other words, they were fighting the dogma wars of the pre digital last century. (see Sean Claffey film America Conned: on Amazon and Vimeo).
On the left: Libtards and on the right: Conservavictims are being screwed by anti-capitalist corporations (Corporate Communism). My goal is to change the fundamental labeling and messaging about economic policy arguments.
We need to care because it is the root of all that is not working in all aspects of American life: the economy, democracy, dare I say life in general. It is not about a conspiracy but rather a corporate business plan that seeks to either end or severely restrict government oversight of the economy. It is based on the anti-human belief that the only object of a corporation is to maximize profits no matter how much pain and suffering it inflicts on people, society, the government, the environment, the larger economy and frequently the corporation itself just as long as it is in a future reporting quarter. (See The Man Who Broke Capitalism by David Gelles, Simon & Schuster).
Corporate Communism is anti-capitalism (Adam Smith and Ayn Rand). It is anti-communism (Marx and Stalin). It is anti-competitive in its core. It hates the free market. Loves big government which it owns. Classic Capitalism and Classic Communism are utopian dreams based on the perfectibility of humans. The stunning materialist success of classic Capitalism in remaking the world is that it most closely follows the depraved human (that is us) indifference to consequences. The stunning lack of success of Russian/Chinese Communism is that it assumed that imperfect dogma dog bureaucrats could manage something other than being dogma dog bureaucrats. (Political officers in every organization).
What is a Libtard? Pure people willing to sacrifice the non-pure on the altar of purity and fairness.
A libtard is a derogatory term for all Progressives coined by the conservatictims of FOX et.al. It is based on an illiterate contraction liberal and retarded. It is also an accurate description of dogmatic, humorless, literal pure people who demand life to be fair and embrace unfairness to seem fair to themselves. DUH. (See Cancel Culture and the Red Guards of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.)
What is a Conservavictim? Hating today and fearing tomorrow.
A conservavictim is a derogatory term that was coined about the whiney little bitches that see themselves as losing their elite, dominant standing in western civilization. (“Those people are taking my stuff, which I inherited fair and square.”) Those not literate enough to understand the irony of following a depraved moron as the person to make America Great Again.
Both the left Libtards and the right Conservavictims say that the US is a capitalist economy. It is not. Capitalism is based on a human free market, competition, and individual human property rights. The error is that since the advent of mega corporations there is no longer a free market aka human capitalist corporation. Since these unregulated corporations got to a dominant size in the market, they used their power to first buy the legislative and then the rest of the government. With that power they got control of the advertising news media for anti-human propaganda. To add insult to injury they used the propaganda machine to proclaim their actions as being in the name of freedom. There is a misinformation fantasy in constant circulation that if you support a minimum wage, labor unions, income proportionality you are anti-business at best and at worst a commie socialist ANTIFA terrorist. BULL SHIT. In fact, you are pro capitalism. We are the essence of capitalism: A customer, the people that make purchases in the free market.
The US has been teetering on the edge of its own reality for decades in its attempt to not confuse one with the facts . Whether it was regime change in Iran , Iraq, the war in Vietnam , guns for drugs in Nicaragua,just to name a few...the crimes have been many and are ongoing.Perhaps now the time has come to pay the ferryman . If hitting bottom is often the only way to smarten up and start the slow climb back up then Trump in the White House may end up being the catalyst for this .It doesn't look good. Hold on tight because it will be a wild ride which I fear the average uninformed American is in no way prepared for .
Averages sometimes mean nothing. What, for example, is the average worth of people at Amazon when Bezos completely skews the numbers? What’s the average number per bee of births in a beehive? The Democrats have to stop being a morass of infighting tribes. You railed against US support of Israel’s war (rightly so), but it was Bernie Sanders that said what needed to be said and should have been said by Kamala.
Sorry, but a lot of people don't agree with you on this. Israel experienced another Holocaust on October 7th. It is the Hamas Killers that people should be railing against.
In addition to the actual perpetrators, the International Criminal Court should issue arrest warrants for anyone who attempts to justify the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in Palestine.
The United States of America has just committed suicide as a majority of the voters chose a fascist, convicted felon, misogynist, pathological liar, traitor, and scofflaw as their 47th president. The USA will now be replaced with the TFARICO which is the Trump Fascist American Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (see 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 - 1968) and Donald Trump is the latter day Benito Mussolini. We are about to collectively experience a true national tragedy.
Come on, we all know adding twelve votes per precinct wouldn't change anything. It would only change who won in those few states that were very close. In the other states where the divide is large the results would be just the same. As Craig said earlier: abolish the electoral college. I would add: deploy ranked choice voting, end gerrymandering, require full financial transparency for campaign finances including PAC donations and spending.
Maybe nationalize the POTUS and VPOTUS election rules and equipment.
Good luck with that. The same states that benefit from the electoral college have unbalanced representation in the mechanisms to pass an amendment.
It would be possible, with just a Congressional bill, to make the House of Representatives truly representative. Might need to find a bigger place to meet. But if the House was more representative, by default the electoral college would be, too.
To repeat, it is very difficult to amend the Constitution, and in this case the same states that benefit from inequity in the electoral college would also do so in the process required for amendment. There would have to be tremendous unity on the issue in the nation, and that is not likely any time soon.
Thank you, Michael. I appreciate your intelligence, zeal, and endurance. And you’re right, many of us are just bone tired right now. I am feeling a renewal of spirit, though.
Like The Chief in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest we have to realize we have the strength to throw the air conditioner through the window and walk to freedom. We don’t need to support the weak and failed leadership that uses our brand for their careerist ambitions. We don’t need to support the Schumer’s, Jeffries, Biden’s and dare I say it, the Pelosis! We have to once and for all stand for what we believe in, the dingbats of the GOP have done that since Goldwater’s losing presidential run and look where they are, foot on our necks! Or we can accept the Carvillian conventional wisdom, stop being “woke” and start bashing trans folks and people with the guts to drag an infant across a border in search of a better life! I’d trade that woman struggling through barbed wire with her baby in tow for all the chocolate cake eating Magats you could fill Mar a Lardo with! 🙏🏼🇺🇸😎🌈 Happy Thanksgiving Mike 👍
Hah, that was an attempt at sarcasm to the folks who think Dems need to stop defending the rights of all so that we can pick off some of the “bigot” vote.
Michael, what a wonderful human being you are. You just described precisely what I've been doing now -- putting the cover over my head and waiting for December. I've been deleting so much from my Inbox. I am very old and this has made me once again terribly depressed. You're telling me to snap out of it. I wlll watch your film again with today's eyes. Thank you, Michael for what you share with us.
These are very dark holidays for me. I will not associate with any traitors so I am hiding.
I will keep on going too~
Dear Michael, I agree with you 100% on the populist economics. You, Robert Reich, Chris Murphy, Bernie Sanders, Antonio Delgado all have the same diagnosis and same prescription. But can we first make sure we even actually lost this time around? I'm assuming you know about the letter the seven computer scientists wrote to Kamala Harris explaining that because Trump supporters unlawfully breached voting systems in a number of states, then copied and distributed proprietary software to an unknown number of people, they were urging her to demand a hand-recount/forensic audit in at least some of the swing states to make sure the declared results are valid. But, and stop me if you've heard this one, did you know that Jackie Singh, head of cybersecurity for the Biden/Harris 2020 campaign also sent a letter to Harris urging a hand-recount/forensic audit?(link provided at end of comment)The Republicans scream bloody murder election fraud with no evidence and actually shift public opinion. Multiple recounts occur in multiple swing states. The Dems, on the other hand, with every legitimate reason not to trust thieving Republicans who lie, cheat, and act in bad faith every step of the way--gerrymandering, voter suppression, the Supremes, stealing and disseminating voting software--don't make a peep. How the hell can we be motivated to work for progressive change when we have no way of knowing with any reasonable certainty who even won this last election? We well may have lost. And I'm all for the next fight and insisting on a new, true economic populism whether we did or not. But with all the sketchy stuff pre-election, all the irregularities/voting anomalies that are being claimed post-election, the nature of the opposition-constant lying/always acting in bad faith--we need to find out first and foremost if we actually DID lose.
https://www.hackingbutlegal.com/p/letter-to-president-biden-and-vice
Another galling observation is that 5 million fewer Democrats voted for Harris in 2024 than Biden in 2022 even though she was on the ticket with him. Every poll leading up to the election had us all believing that it would be a Democrat landslide. Apparently the old adage "it's not who votes, but who counts the votes that matters". Abolish the Electoral College.
Oh please abolish the electoral college… and citizens united while we can
Is it possible to recall a president? I ask because here in California we once (that I know of) recalled a governor (Gray Davis) for reasons laughable compared to Trumpzi’s treasonous criminality. Asking for 183 million friends …
"Trumpzi" - that is a brilliant moniker - don't mind if I use that going forward !
Alas, there is no Constitutional provision for recalling a president. They can only be impeached in the House of Representatives and tried in the Senate.
Thank you for responding (w/o ridicule) ... I still wonder whether a "petition" might garner some popular traction, and at least provide some cathartic "release" for a significant portion of that 183 million. Thank you again for respectfully considering my silly suggestion.
Mike; I agree with what you said about how the working class felt abandoned, but where was your indignation during the campaign? You were one of Harris's biggest cheerleaders. Your criticism is valid, but why didn't you do It during the campaign? It's kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has already left. Do better.
He made it clear that Harris and her public support of Biden/DNC’s anti-Palestinian policy—no Palestinian voice at DNC Convention, endless Biden/DNC admin military and financial support for genocide, etc— was deeply immoral and despicable and would cost the Dems. And yes, genocide in Gaza was one of several things that added up for people as being WEAK about Harris and her sad team, the forever spineless DNC.
However, When you have Bernie and AOC supporting Biden admin for being the most progressive since FDR (Lina Khan at FTC is a great example) MM might not have felt it wise to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Yes, the DNC is a disgrace—but bashing their long-standing corporate sell-out of the middle class, instead of doing your best to support someone who is part of a progressive admin, well, what’s the point?
MM has a limited amount of political capital in the progressive space —he has to cheerlead as well as criticize. So he criticized her for being pro-genocide (let’s face it, that’s what the Biden policy is) but cheer-leaded her for being progressive. Which is what AOC and Bernie did as well.
I won’t say “Do better,” Craig, because that would be snarky.
I agree. I was appalled by Biden stance on Gaza and all the assistance we gave to the genocide, but given a choice of Trump or Harris, of course, we supported her. However I can understand how sick people are by the lack of action by the DNC to reverse the terrible money in politics policies. Give the donors whatever they pay for. Now it may be too late with climate change and Trump's fascism.
If you want to stop the corruption, you're going to have to show the American people concrete proof that both major political parties have sold them out.
I have that proof. I put it in a book. All you have to do is read it. You can get a free digital copy by going to my Substack
I don't recall him ever criticizing Harris on Gaza. He actually said that fewer people would die under a Harris administration. And, he called the DNC convention flawless, barely mentioning the snub of the Palestinian speaker. Besides, Harris didn't lose over Gaza, she lost because people associated her with Biden, they blamed Bideh/Harris for higher prices. That's why he won.
MM excoriated, pleaded with, did everything possible, to stop Biden/AIPAC/DNC —and by association, Harris- backed genocide. He threw her a bone when she wasn’t as rabid as Biden. But she was still WEAK on genocide.
This election wasn’t just one thing, although the tortuously stressful and virtually unsurvivable paycheck-to-paycheck lives of 60 percent of Americans, was certainly top of list. But I know that a lot of people, esp young people, who simply couldn’t REWARD a genocidal party —even if the other one was worse. That would have required being proactive in the awarding of one’s precious vote. A bridge too far. So people who had voted for Biden in 2020 stayed home so they didn’t have to be complicit. I know some. I think that’s what the vote showed? Maybe I’m wrong?
Probably parially true, but it's also true that a number of people who voted for Biden in 2020 switched to Trump. AOC polled some of her own supporters who voted for her AND Trump. They thought Trump was the champion of the working class. Some thought he would end the war. So, obviously misinformation played a large part as well.
It's actually worst than you think. The Republicans and Democrats are actually conspiring together against every single one of us. For proof of this assertion, go to my Substack for a free digital copy of my book: The Illusion of Justice.
I love you Michael g. I am happy to share the earth with someone so inspiring.
I plan to join any and all resistance. I will not pay my federal income tax unless Trump's government collapses.
Signed - a 76 year old willing to go to jail
Along with many women in professions that in my lifetime didn’t admit not accept women, I remain convinced that the people who stayed home mainly would have voted for a white guy with the same policies and campaign.
Too true.
C'mon, Mr. Moore, you're better than this. Dems lost this time around because, once again, they failed to read the pulse of the American people. I contend that Democratic leadership hasn't learned much since the 2016 election loss.
In 2016, there was shock and dismay, followed by whining and complaining. I saw little evidence of anyone in Democratic leadership doing the work of trying to figure out why what happened happened. You, however, called it beforehand and I wrote a couple of articles on LinkedIn just afterward where I explained what I believed was at play.
Instead of developing young leadership, which should have been an obvious necessity at the time, Democrats unnecessarily spun their wheels for 3 years, then had a 20 person cage match fight for the nomination. Thank goodness for Biden's SC victory that propelled him to the nomination because, being more centric, he was likely the only candidate who had a chance of beating Trump in 2020. Trump attacked him so hard because he knew that.
The Harris campaign did touch a bit on all of the important topics, but focused WAY too much on "Trump bad, we have morals" than it should have. Too much effort was spent preaching to the choir, so to speak. At some point in time the Democratic Party needs to analyze WHY it lost in 2016 & 2024 and why 2020 was closer than it should have been.
As other have proffered being against Trump wasn't and isn't enough. The aftermath of Democratic reaction to this loss almost seems like congratulating itself on how close it was (just 12 votes per precinct). No! Too many Dems think that anyone who voted for Trump is, by definition, a racist, xenophobe, and misogynist. Democratic leadership needs to be analytical and more broad-minded. Think like a debate team candidate - you can successfully argue your own position only when you can do so regarding the opposing view.
The Republicans absolutely OWNED social media this time around. The Democratic think tank has rusted out and needs to be replaced. We need to stop feeling good about what we did well this time and focus on where, why, and how we f*cked up and then be determined to turn that around. Democrats need to understand that not everyone thinks as they do. Get inside the heads of the opposition and figure it out!
The Democrats are taking bribes from the same corporate/special interest groups as the Republicans. They are always going to do exactly what the "donors" want them to do and this will not change until we demand an end to the system of legalized bribery that is the cause of all the problems in the world.
The Democrats or the Republicans for that matter could fight for progressive policies but they refuse to stop taking bribes. Why do you think both parties are pro-genocide?
Why many of us voted for Ralph Nader whose research proved the basic equality of corruption of the two parties. But he snd us Greens are still blamed for Bush winning despite excellent proof that we were sadly worth almost nothing while both parties plus Congress and the Supremes managed the whole system for the Repugs.
I voted for Nader in 1996, but then he failed to organize any kind of ground game for the 2000 race, just his own celebrity status, so I sighed and voted for Democratic Leadership Council founding member Al Gore, whose campaign seemed to consist of "Me, too, but not as much" in response to Bush's declarations of policy.
If you go to my Substack, you can get a free digital copy of my book: The Illusion of Justice. It not only proves that both parties are corrupt, but that they have been conspiring together to violate everyone's constitutional rights by packing the courts with corrupt corporate judges who have no intention of ever siding with the American people.
We need to stop with Monday-morning-quarterbacking and whining…and start getting ready to win the midterms with a substantial enough margin to shut down any drivel from Trumpists about a mandate. Let’s get behind good candidates and a strong message. Trump,will help us by embracing the crazy and scaring the non-MAGA. 2026 is just around the corner. Let’s get busy!
A New Paradigm
We need to move beyond the outdated battle between capitalism and socialism neither of which exists in modern America. What we have now is Corporate Communism—a business plan, not a conspiracy theory, where corporations maximize profits at the expense of everything else. It is when brain dead, soulless corporations own the means of communication. It’s anti-capitalist, anti-socialist, and anti-competitive at its core. It is not one of innovation or market competition, but of bean-counting and job destruction.
The corporate advertising media, a key player in this scheme, props up figures like Trump because they sell ad revenue. Journalism, which costs money, has been sacrificed for 24/7 sensationalism. Instead of covering the root causes of economic discontent, they peddle endless stories about political, sport and entertainment sideshows, keeping Americans distracted while corporations continue their conquest. Then there is the wrong-headed, simple-minded policy of equal time. The stupidest example being the opposing party making a “response” to the state of the union by the president. That speech is a report by the leader of the country on the actual “State of the Union.” Yes, it is partisan and so are presidential news conferences and public comments. The opposition has no standing to reply in an official or advertising media funded manner. It is a cynical joke. The most egregious example being the “sane washing” of Trumputin. Supposed journalists report of the incoherent ravings of our: Felon In Chief” as if he were somehow a normal candidate much less a functioning adult. Shame on us for thinking that this politically correct idiocy is somehow in the service of democracy.
We have privatized Big Brother.
How We Got Here:
Do you remember Occupy Wall Street and The Tea Party? Did it ever seem to be that they were opposite sides of the same coin? The coin of “fed up.” They had vastly different solutions to complaints that were eerily similar. The Occupy people were yelling about corrupt capitalism and Tea Party types about creeping socialism. In other words, they were fighting the dogma wars of the pre digital last century. (see Sean Claffey film America Conned: on Amazon and Vimeo).
On the left: Libtards and on the right: Conservavictims are being screwed by anti-capitalist corporations (Corporate Communism). My goal is to change the fundamental labeling and messaging about economic policy arguments.
We need to care because it is the root of all that is not working in all aspects of American life: the economy, democracy, dare I say life in general. It is not about a conspiracy but rather a corporate business plan that seeks to either end or severely restrict government oversight of the economy. It is based on the anti-human belief that the only object of a corporation is to maximize profits no matter how much pain and suffering it inflicts on people, society, the government, the environment, the larger economy and frequently the corporation itself just as long as it is in a future reporting quarter. (See The Man Who Broke Capitalism by David Gelles, Simon & Schuster).
Corporate Communism is anti-capitalism (Adam Smith and Ayn Rand). It is anti-communism (Marx and Stalin). It is anti-competitive in its core. It hates the free market. Loves big government which it owns. Classic Capitalism and Classic Communism are utopian dreams based on the perfectibility of humans. The stunning materialist success of classic Capitalism in remaking the world is that it most closely follows the depraved human (that is us) indifference to consequences. The stunning lack of success of Russian/Chinese Communism is that it assumed that imperfect dogma dog bureaucrats could manage something other than being dogma dog bureaucrats. (Political officers in every organization).
What is a Libtard? Pure people willing to sacrifice the non-pure on the altar of purity and fairness.
A libtard is a derogatory term for all Progressives coined by the conservatictims of FOX et.al. It is based on an illiterate contraction liberal and retarded. It is also an accurate description of dogmatic, humorless, literal pure people who demand life to be fair and embrace unfairness to seem fair to themselves. DUH. (See Cancel Culture and the Red Guards of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.)
What is a Conservavictim? Hating today and fearing tomorrow.
A conservavictim is a derogatory term that was coined about the whiney little bitches that see themselves as losing their elite, dominant standing in western civilization. (“Those people are taking my stuff, which I inherited fair and square.”) Those not literate enough to understand the irony of following a depraved moron as the person to make America Great Again.
Both the left Libtards and the right Conservavictims say that the US is a capitalist economy. It is not. Capitalism is based on a human free market, competition, and individual human property rights. The error is that since the advent of mega corporations there is no longer a free market aka human capitalist corporation. Since these unregulated corporations got to a dominant size in the market, they used their power to first buy the legislative and then the rest of the government. With that power they got control of the advertising news media for anti-human propaganda. To add insult to injury they used the propaganda machine to proclaim their actions as being in the name of freedom. There is a misinformation fantasy in constant circulation that if you support a minimum wage, labor unions, income proportionality you are anti-business at best and at worst a commie socialist ANTIFA terrorist. BULL SHIT. In fact, you are pro capitalism. We are the essence of capitalism: A customer, the people that make purchases in the free market.
joewightman.substack.com
The US has been teetering on the edge of its own reality for decades in its attempt to not confuse one with the facts . Whether it was regime change in Iran , Iraq, the war in Vietnam , guns for drugs in Nicaragua,just to name a few...the crimes have been many and are ongoing.Perhaps now the time has come to pay the ferryman . If hitting bottom is often the only way to smarten up and start the slow climb back up then Trump in the White House may end up being the catalyst for this .It doesn't look good. Hold on tight because it will be a wild ride which I fear the average uninformed American is in no way prepared for .
Averages sometimes mean nothing. What, for example, is the average worth of people at Amazon when Bezos completely skews the numbers? What’s the average number per bee of births in a beehive? The Democrats have to stop being a morass of infighting tribes. You railed against US support of Israel’s war (rightly so), but it was Bernie Sanders that said what needed to be said and should have been said by Kamala.
Sorry, but a lot of people don't agree with you on this. Israel experienced another Holocaust on October 7th. It is the Hamas Killers that people should be railing against.
In addition to the actual perpetrators, the International Criminal Court should issue arrest warrants for anyone who attempts to justify the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in Palestine.
The United States of America has just committed suicide as a majority of the voters chose a fascist, convicted felon, misogynist, pathological liar, traitor, and scofflaw as their 47th president. The USA will now be replaced with the TFARICO which is the Trump Fascist American Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (see 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 - 1968) and Donald Trump is the latter day Benito Mussolini. We are about to collectively experience a true national tragedy.
Come on, we all know adding twelve votes per precinct wouldn't change anything. It would only change who won in those few states that were very close. In the other states where the divide is large the results would be just the same. As Craig said earlier: abolish the electoral college. I would add: deploy ranked choice voting, end gerrymandering, require full financial transparency for campaign finances including PAC donations and spending.
Maybe nationalize the POTUS and VPOTUS election rules and equipment.
Good luck with that. The same states that benefit from the electoral college have unbalanced representation in the mechanisms to pass an amendment.
It would be possible, with just a Congressional bill, to make the House of Representatives truly representative. Might need to find a bigger place to meet. But if the House was more representative, by default the electoral college would be, too.
time to get rid of the Electoral college~
time to get AIPAC, PACs and grift out of the US Congress~
To repeat, it is very difficult to amend the Constitution, and in this case the same states that benefit from inequity in the electoral college would also do so in the process required for amendment. There would have to be tremendous unity on the issue in the nation, and that is not likely any time soon.
well if we don't try....we get the same old same old....best to Try....and be Strategic than sitting on one's tush.....
Thank you, Michael. I appreciate your intelligence, zeal, and endurance. And you’re right, many of us are just bone tired right now. I am feeling a renewal of spirit, though.
ABSURD is the WORD.
Like The Chief in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest we have to realize we have the strength to throw the air conditioner through the window and walk to freedom. We don’t need to support the weak and failed leadership that uses our brand for their careerist ambitions. We don’t need to support the Schumer’s, Jeffries, Biden’s and dare I say it, the Pelosis! We have to once and for all stand for what we believe in, the dingbats of the GOP have done that since Goldwater’s losing presidential run and look where they are, foot on our necks! Or we can accept the Carvillian conventional wisdom, stop being “woke” and start bashing trans folks and people with the guts to drag an infant across a border in search of a better life! I’d trade that woman struggling through barbed wire with her baby in tow for all the chocolate cake eating Magats you could fill Mar a Lardo with! 🙏🏼🇺🇸😎🌈 Happy Thanksgiving Mike 👍
“START bashing trans folks?” Did I miss something there?
Hah, that was an attempt at sarcasm to the folks who think Dems need to stop defending the rights of all so that we can pick off some of the “bigot” vote.